‘Boardwalk Empire,’ Season 3, Episode 10, ‘A Man, a Plan…’: TV Recap

Summertime is in full swing in Atlantic City as Nucky kicks off plans to go to war. The plan is for Owen to kill Joe Masseria while he is at a Turkish bath, thereby making Gyp easier to get to. Eli is going to Chicago to convince Torrio to join Nucky while Mickey Doyle is heading to Pennsylvania to run Treasury Secretary Andrew Mellon’s still. Nucky also arranges to pay Means $40,000 to kill Jess Smith to keep him from talking to the Feds (Means also stages a scene to make Smith look crazy, convincing Harry Daugherty to also give him $40,000 to off him. In the end Smith ends up shooting himself in the head—a quick $80,000 for Means). Nucky also has enlisted the help of Bill McCoy to make a fake deal with Gyp to gain information about his business.

In Tabor Heights, Gyp continues to bring booze in on boats. One night part of the shipment is lost and one of Gyp’s men, who turns out to have a lot of boating experience because his father was a fisherman, tells him that because of “rogue waves” it’s easy to lose cargo if it isn’t strapped down. His cousin quickly jumps in and tries to keep him quiet, worried the conversation would set Gyp off into one of his rages, but Gyp seems to accept the advice.

(There is a fantastic scene at the beginning of the episode as the bottles of Gyp’s lost whiskey wash up on shore. All the sunbathers run into the water yelling, “Whiskey!” including a man dressed as Poseidon who was putting on a show for the beach-goers for the opening of the shore season.)

Later, the men meet Nucky’s man McCoy. Gyp brushes off the lost-case incident by saying the captain was probably drunk. The fisherman’s son pipes up and disagrees, saying it was the rogue wave. (Why do people keep talking to Gyp?!)

Back at the beach at night after a shipment Gyp has the fisherman’s son buried up to his neck in the sand as the tide comes in. His cousin begs Gyp not to kill him. Gyp takes a shovel and we think maybe, maybe he is going to dig the guy out. Instead he whacks the guy over the head with a shovel over and over, then returns to the cousin and says that now he owes him a favor.

Meanwhile, Lucky and Lansky try to convince Rothstein to join them in the heroin trade. Rothstein tells them that he is interested but, with a war on the way, the timing isn’t right. So Lucky and Lansky take their deal to Massaria. To convince him to team up, they tell him about Nucky’s plan to off him.

In Chicago, Van Alden takes his salesmen case full of Norwegian booze on the road, calling it a “taste of the homeland.” He has success selling to one bar owner, but when he returns to sell him more, Van Alden gets carted off by two men with guns. “Am I under arrest?” he asks as the men drag him from the bar, but these guys are obviously gangsters, not Feds.

The men bring Van Alden to Capone. He explains that he isn’t selling this liquor for O’Banion and that he knows nothing about it. Capone seems to be open to discussion until he lunges at Van Alden and sticks a fork in his cheek (he’s done) and demands to know the details of O’Banion’s business.

Harrow and Julia Sagorski continue to spend time together. They take Tommy to the beach and share stories of lost loves. One afternoon sitting at the kitchen table Julia tells Harrow that it is nice that Tommy has his grandmother, but that boys need a father and it is good that Tommy has him in his life. Just then Julia’s father walks in, drunk. He yells at his daughter and derides her for “spreading her legs” for Harrow and calling him a freak. Harrow jumps up from the table and wrestles him to the floor, tears off his mask and forces him to apologize, to her. The two end up at the beach that evening, sleeping together under the boardwalk.

Margaret and Owen plan their escape from Nucky to St. Louis. One night at the hotel suite, Margaret sings the children to sleep and Teddy asks when they can go back home. Margaret tells him they can leave the hotel soon, and who knows what adventures await them after that. Nucky overhears them and walks in, saying they can go home as soon as the work being done to the house is finished (the story they must have told the children as to why they are living in a hotel).

Meantime, the bishop has decided to bring an end to Margaret’s women’s health education classes. The doctor wants to continue them, but Margaret isn’t interested and we feel like she is saying her goodbyes.

As Margaret sits quiet and alone in the dark one night, Nucky joins her and takes her hand. He apologizes for all the craziness since the explosion and promises to make it up to her, calling it a new beginning. She agrees that it is a new beginning, but we know she means one for her, the children and Owen, not her and Nucky.

A few hours later, Eddie wakes Nucky. It is 4 a.m. and a delivery has arrived. As Eddy and Nucky pry open a crate in the entryway, Margaret wakes up and comes out to see what the noise is about. Eddie pops open the crate lid and inside is Owen, bloody and dead (Why does this show insist on killing off all of the good-looking well-meaning bad boys?!). Margaret rushes to the crate, crying and screaming. Nucky seems surprised to see her so hysterical.

Alone and in the dark again Margaret remembers her last conversation with Owen. She wanted assurances that he was really going to leave and that he wasn’t like Nucky. Owen says those would just be words and offers her a kiss. She stops him and says that she is pregnant and that the baby is his. She asks him to be honest with her about how he feels now about leaving. He replies that he hopes it is a boy.